In Rotation: The Kreutzer Sonata - The Gutters of Paradise

If you have seen the Kreutzer Sonata playing their new songs during the last year, you already know that a heavy band got heavier. The release of The Gutters of Paradise really cements it. There are not many spaces to take a breath in these 15 songs. The album is an onslaught of riffs, shouts and in your face intensity. The Chicago hardcore band has largely dropped the melodic breaks that peppered their first full-length, 2015's Austere. The result is a very different album but one that decidedly fits under the Kreutzer Sonata banner.

Album opener "Ten Yard Stare" is immediately a standout track. The rumbling start gives way to a song full of interesting guitar work and self-deprecating lyrics. The song ends with a bouncy, uniquely textured instrumental section. This is followed immediately by the pounding beginning of "Nobody." It hits like a punch in the face. "Schlitz Faced" takes on a strong posture and creative structure, splitting the chorus in half at the end of the song. The vocal delivery on this song is that of someone leaning back, comfortably owning the imperfections that come with a punk lifestyle. "Gave up on a future to sing punk rock songs/I'll scream til I tear my throat/And you can't tell me otherwise/Without this I'm dead inside/Never really questioned why/Chaos makes me feel alive." The lyrics on this album often play with the idea alluded to by the album's title - paradise and gutters are not separate, black and white ideas.

"Old Glory" calls out our political leaders with the biggest sing-along chorus on the album. As the album's penultimate track, it is one of two songs to begin with the chorus. This one is the sweaty shout along chorus of an anthem. The Gutters of Paradise is out on vinyl now via Don't Panic Records & Distro, Collision Course Records and No Time Records. Order that through the Kreutzer Sonata's Bandcamp page. See the Kreutzer Sonata live at the Gallery Cabaret in Chicago on March 24 with Shitizen, Alley Slob, Held Against Your Head and Flagass. More information on that show here. Stream the album below.